


By and By

by mirandamyth



Series: seasons [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, FWF (Finale What Finale), Headcanon, M/M, Post-Canon, Sam Eileen Claire Jack mentioned, Soft Epilogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28211196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirandamyth/pseuds/mirandamyth
Summary: This is the soft epilogue we deserved, canon compliant through Inherit the Earth.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: seasons [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2066691
Comments: 10
Kudos: 67





	By and By

**Author's Note:**

> [click for vibes on spotify](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ndOaepoTpeRgsNOyZWmVp)

It takes Dean a while to adjust to sharing a bed. He hogs the covers and sleeps in the dead center. More than once Cas has woken up to use the bathroom in the night and come back to an alert, armed Dean (they agree it isn't smart to keep the gun loaded by the bed after the first time). Cas, for his part, is a clingy sleeper and runs hot. He is an occasional insomniac, and a fidgety bed partner.

Dean is terrible in the mornings, but rises early, unable to sleep past eight. Cas usually wakes up when Dean extricates himself from the tangle of limbs and blanket, but waits until he can smell coffee before joining him in the kitchen. They don't talk much in the mornings, but they sit shoulder to shoulder, knocking knees or ankles affectionately.

Dean makes them breakfast, usually scrambled eggs and a side of bacon or sausage, but sometimes pancakes or biscuits and gravy. Cas washes. Dean dries.

Some mornings, they do none of this. Dean still wakes up by eight, still makes coffee, but Cas doesn't get out of bed. Instead, Dean comes in bearing two mugs, sets one on Cas' nightstand and kisses his temple. Some mornings it's Cas who has to make the coffee and coax Dean out of his own head. These mornings they do talk; about the dreams, about the ways in which their bodies ache, about the ways the world has moved on.

They don't hunt much, anymore. Maybe if there is something local; maybe if Claire needs help (which she's gotten better at asking for); maybe if Sam has an inexperienced hunter that needs the assist.

They don't get day jobs, or open a bar, but they do move out of the bunker, out of Kansas entirely. They "inherit" an expansive (formerly haunted) farmhouse in Nebraska and fix it up. There's more room than the two of them could ever need, but it's rarely just the two of them. Claire stays with them at least once a month, and Sam sends any hunters low on funds their way. Dean fixes vehicles and stitches up wounds. Cas repairs weapons and packs Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to send along when they leave.

Cas worked diligently to turn the back acre into a large garden and apiary. In the summers he sells honey and whatever excess produce he has at the farmer's market in town. Dean brews beer in the barn. Occasionally moonshine, if Cas has a good corn crop that year. He sells it to townies and hunters alike.

Sam and Eileen come to stay in the summers, and their son follows Cas around everywhere, asking about a thousand questions a minute. Cas patiently answers each one until the boy runs out. 

Sometimes Dean catches Cas sitting alone in the garden at sunset, or just before a storm rolls in - eyes closed, face to the sky, lips moving soundlessly. He knows to give him space for this, knows that Cas feels Jack's absence more acutely than the rest of them. Dean prays to Jack occasionally, too. Usually on Jack's birthday, and always on the day Cas came back. He apologizes often in these prayers, but he gives thanks far more.

They have friends who know nothing about their lives before. Dean plays poker once a month at the firehouse, Cas has a semi-hostile relationship with the woman who runs the garden center at the hardware store. They have a regular table and waitress at the restaurant in town. They attend all the stupid events, hand in hand for the spring fling carnival, camped out on a blanket in the park for fireworks on the 4th of July, they wax and shine the Impala for the fall festival and car show; Cas bundles them both up for every night of the Holiday market in December. When people in town ask how long they've been married, neither of them bother to correct it. (Dean figures that what they have is probably more binding than any paper from a courthouse would ever be, anyway)

Dean makes Cas promise to let him go first. He figures he has seen Cas die enough for one lifetime. He also figures that if Cas can't hold up his end of that deal, he'll probably be close behind anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted to tumblr [here](https://smokerdean.tumblr.com/post/638087185074110464) if you loved this, feel free to leave me a comment or go reblog it!


End file.
